News: Bridging the Gap Between User-Generated Content and Interesting Content

[News Bot]

Edge Magazine is running a story about user-generated content - or rather, its failure to live up to the hype of the past few years. The author says it "turned out to be a niche. Not everyone has the chops to learn the tools, and even fewer gamers have an idea they want to see through. Instead of revolutionizing games, it merely adds another rung on the ladder from 'player' to 'game-maker.'" Instead, the games that have incorporated the concept in a fun way use what he calls "user-generated, machine-mediated content," and he points out the flexibility of Scribblenauts; the user supplies the imagination and the developer translates that to gameplay. "It shows us our reflection - however tiny, however distorted - inside our games, an experience that is guaranteed to mesmerize us. Ambitious players will still go pick up the tools and learn the languages that let them mod or make their own games; but while they're busy with that, [this system] can invigorate our content - and give us a little more of what we love: ourselves."



Read more of this story at Slashdot.

[BlkRb0t]

Just the other day I was playing "Little Big Planet" with my friend on his PS3 and I must say creating our own levels and then playing it together is a lot of fun.

[Ze-Tomb]

Originally Posted by BlkRb0t

Just the other day I was playing "Little Big Planet" with my friend on his PS3 and I must say creating our own levels and then playing it together is a lot of fun.

Create your own levels? Hell yeah!
And in my opinion, less work to be done on the game (maybe?). You don't have to create a highly detailed world, just let the customer do so. Al lyou need ot do is create the objects which they do anyway.

As for the niche dieing down, I don't think it has that much, if anything I'd say it is a bit more wanted.